The Not-So-Great Outdoors
by Bandit3
Summary: The Digidestined (well, most of them, anyway) go camping, and chaos ensues. Taiora, Takari, Kenyako


The Not-So-Great Outdoors A Digimon Fanfic By Bandit  
  
*Kari*  
I dropped my backpack to the ground at the edge of the clearing, suddenly impressed as I looked around. I usually wouldn't be caught dead complimenting Davis, but even TK would have to admit he'd done something right for once.  
"Wow! You picked a great spot, Davis!" I gave him a hug, figuring he deserved it.  
"Yeah, I kinda noticed it on a flyby," Davis said with a grin, putting his hand behind his head in a gesture so Tai that I almost checked behind me to make sure my brother was still there and not in front of me in the flame jacket.  
That ended the hug pretty quickly. See, however cute some people...*coughcoughsoracoughcough*...may find this pose, when Davis does it, it just kind of creeps me out. I mean, the guy is so much like my brother that he could be, well, another Tai! One of the main reasons I ignore his advances, in fact, is that it gives me the willies just thinking about kissing someone who could be Tai's twin in multiple ways...  
But I digress. In fact, I should probably explain what we were doing in a forest clearing in the Digiworld in the first place. It being a beautiful stretch of summery weather in the Digital World, not to mention a miserable stretch of cloudy gray weather in the real world, we Digidestined had decided to go camping. On Friday, we'd packed our gear and headed out in force; everybody but Mimi, Joe, and Izzy showed up. Mimi couldn't get plane tickets in time, Joe had Saturday school, and Izzy was 'busy'. I think he's working on some big programming project; he's 'busy' a lot lately.  
We had reached the clearing that Davis had recommended, and it really was spectacular. Huge, ancient trees ringed it; in fact, it looked as though the fall of one of those trees might have made it. The clearing itself was soft green meadow, dotted with flowers, some of which were the size of dinner plates in true Digital World fashion. A cheerful little stream bubbled through the middle of it, clear as glass with multicolored stones at the bottom and mossy rocks along the banks. It was like a place out of a fairy tale.  
"Best of all, there aren't any control spires for miles around!" Sora put in. "If that psycho lady decides to attack us, she's going to have to travel for miles through forest, and we're bound to hear her coming hours before she gets here, even with that jeep."  
"How she *got* a jeep, the world may never know," Matt muttered.  
"Well, if it's settled that we're staying here..." Tai's question was answered by a chorus of eager 'yes!'s. "In that case, let's pitch these tents and get settled!"  
  
*TK*  
I was still ticked off as I began to set up the tent that Ken and I would be sharing. I had convinced Cody that if I had to share a tent with Davis, pain and humiliation for all parties involved would occur. He came around when I added that 'all parties involved' would include him. So he's sharing with Davis, I'm with Ken, Tai is with Matt, and the girls are all sharing one big dome tent. All of the guys' tents are those two-person pup tents, but I don't mind. I'd sleep in a paper bag if it meant Davis wouldn't be in it.  
Why was I ticked off? It's immature, I know, but I was jealous. Davis practically got a medal from Kari, and all he did was find some stupid clearing! Sure, it's a nice one, but... "Oh, never mind," I muttered, trying to fit a metal support into its notch in the tent fabric.  
Next to us, Matt and Tai already had their tent set up and were stashing their stuff inside. Mine would have been up, too, but Ken had gone off to get firewood. Cody was getting water from the stream, and so Davis was also doing a solo setup. He wasn't having much success, though. In fact, just as I looked up from my work to see how he was doing, the whole mess fell over on top of him.  
"Ack! Help! Ow!" The pile of orange fabric and supports twitched and struggled, and I doubled over laughing. That was the funniest thing I'd seen in days...not to mention particularly nice to see after his little funfest with Kari. I could barely see, I was laughing so hard...  
"Oh, my gosh! Here, hold on!"  
My laughter stopped as if someone had thrown a pie in my face...and, metaphorically, someone had. Kari was kneeling next to the collapsed tent, pulling it off of Davis. Between the two of them, he was free in about a minute. Standing up, he offered a hand to Kari, who took it.  
*Okay, stay cool,* I warned myself. *She's just being nice, and that's what's so great about her, that she'll be sweet to an utter moron...*  
It was about then that Davis hugged her.  
"Thanks a million! I was pretty trapped there."  
"No problem," Kari said, and went back to setting up her tent.  
Me? To put it mildly, there was red swimming before my eyes. What was it with hugging today? You'd think they were best friends, or something... For a minute I considered pulling my tent down on top of myself, but I doubted that she would fall for it. Still, it might be worth a shot...  
*That's it. Cool it! You sound like Davis, all furious about nothing and always scheming to trick Kari into liking him. Do you want that?* The side of me with objective sense had stepped in, and it was a good thing, too. I was about ready to skewer Davis on his own tent stake. *But that is a Davis thing to think. Not a TK thing,* I reminded myself.  
*Oh, what the heck. I'd better get back to setting up my tent before Ken gets back. But Davis had better not think he's got a premium on Kari for the trip, because he will be dead wrong...*  
  
*Davis*  
As I worked on setting up my tent, I was ecstatic! I could barely stand still, and the tent ended up falling over twice because of that, but I didn't care. Kari had hugged me! Twice! I always knew she would come around...  
"Hey, Davis, isn't the tent up yet?" Looking up, I saw that Cody was back already with two buckets of water.  
"Um, well, sort of..." He gave me a look. "You know, that was a 'maybe not' kind of 'sort of'..." The Look did not let up. "Okay, no. But it will be! Soon! I promise!"  
Cody just set down the buckets and started to help. In about five minutes, we had our tent up. It had taken me fifteen minutes of fiddling to get as far as I had, and I felt a little sheepish as Cody picked up the buckets again and headed for the spot where Sora was arranging rocks in a circle around the campfire-pit that Tai had dug.  
Still, Kari had hugged me! As I crawled into the tent and began to roll out my sleeping bag, I was still grinning. *What a great day this is turning out to be...*  
  
*Tai*  
It didn't take us all long to get set up...except for Davis. Why my sister hugged him I'll never know. It's not very smart to encourage the poor guy; he just follows her even more until she blows him off again. Anyway, it didn't take long to set up camp, but it was already late in the day, and the sun was beginning to set.  
The girls were congregated in their tent, giggling, and Matt was trying to light a fire to cook anything stick-roastable over. The fire pit was a real nice piece of work, if I do say so myself. Which I do. Sora and I make a good team.  
I could get started on the subject of Sora and myself, but you'd get bored pretty quickly. I tend to repeat myself when I'm having trouble thinking clearly, and I rarely think clearly when I'm talking about her...  
*Anyway*, Matt was trying to light a fire. I say 'trying' because he wasn't having much luck. "Stupid matches...I wish Gabumon was here," I heard him mutter as he lit his fifth one, holding it to the sticks piled in the fire pit. He held it there, trying to get it to light the wood.  
"Hey, Matt, need some help?" Ken called from the door of his and TK's tent. "I used to go camping with my family all the time!"  
"And I used to be able to do this blindfolded," Matt complained to himself, scowling. I didn't remember him being able to light fires at all, but I elected to stay silent. Matt was looking dangerous.  
"I'm fine!" he yelled to Ken, who retreated back into his tent with a 'don't say I didn't offer' shrug. The match, in the meantime, had burned down pretty far, and was about to demonstrate just why it's generally a good idea to pay attention to one's matches when lighting things on fire. "Ow!" Matt yelled, dropping it and swearing loudly (and in a muffled voice) as he stuck his singed fingers in his mouth.  
"You sure you don't want any help?" Ken called from inside his tent.  
"Oh, all right," Matt said grudgingly, and I left him listening to a lecture from Ken on why you don't just throw a few logs in the pit and hold a match to them. He was building a thing like a Tinker Toys house in the pit while he talked, filling it with dry grass and kindling. I didn't get the point of this, but then I had always had Agumon light fires for me, so I didn't have much experience with that sort of thing.  
In the meantime, I wanted to know why there was loud laughter coming from the girls' tent. Stopping outside of it, I called through the tent flap, "Hey, what's so funny?"  
The laughter got louder, but then a loud and mortified 'shhh!' came from inside, and it died away. A minute later, the flap unzipped, and Sora's head poked out.  
"We're playing a game," she said shortly. "Go away."  
So much for what a great team we make. "What? Why?"  
She was beginning to look nervous. "Never mind. Just go."  
"Wanna play, Tai?" I heard Yolei yell from inside. Sora went white.  
"No! He doesn't!" she yelled back immediately. I began to grin.  
"Maybe I do," I said with a wicked expression. Sora went red this time.  
"You don't. Trust me. Besides, I thought we agreed no guys in the girls' tent."  
"We can move outside," Kari suggested from behind her.  
"No, we can't!" Sora insisted, turning even redder. I was getting pretty interested in what was so funny.  
"I think this sounds pretty interesting. What are we playing?"  
"None of your-"  
"Truth or dare!" Yolei said gleefully. "And Sora just doesn't want you in here because it's her turn and she just got Truthed to-"  
Before Yolei could finish, Sora dove out of sight. Several muffled noises came from inside, and then she reappeared with her hand over Yolei's mouth as Yolei giggled and tried to escape.  
"Goodbye, Tai!" Sora said, very firmly, and zipped the flap closed in my face.  
I blinked several times, and walked away. "O-kay...whatever that was about, I don't think I want to know what it was..."  
  
*Sora*  
"Yolei!" I said angrily, letting go of her mouth as soon as I guessed Tai was out of hearing range. "What were you *doing*?!"  
"Nothing," she said with an unconvincing 'innocent little girl' smile. "I just invited Tai in. Is there a problem with that?"  
"You little sneak, you know what the problem is!" I said, glaring at her. Kari stepped between us.  
"Okay, you two, break it up. Just do the Truth and get it over with, Sora. He's gone now."  
"Oh, fine," I muttered, and sat down again on my sleeping bag. "Tai," I muttered, as quietly as I could.  
"I couldn't hear that," Yolei said, grinning.  
"It's Tai," I said again, slightly louder this time. She frowned, putting a hand to her ear.  
"Still can't hear you..." she said in a singsong voice. I snapped.  
"IT'S TAI, OKAY?! I LIKE TAI! SUE ME!" A second later, I clapped my hands over my mouth, horrified. "Oh, no..." I whispered, as the blood rushed to my face.  
"Well, that went well," Yolei proclaimed with a satisfied smile. "Your turn."  
"Yolei, you little schemer, I don't want to..." Suddenly, inspiration shot across my mind. "Oh, all right. Let's keep playing. Yolei, truth or dare?"  
Yolei looked smug as she answered, "I know what you're up to, Sora, and you're not getting it out of me. Dare."  
Yes! She'd fallen for it like a soccer ball off of a cliff!  
"Okay, I dare you to shout this at the top of your lungs." Leaning over, I whispered in her ear. The expression on her face was too good for words; she looked like she might faint.  
"No way!" she squeaked.  
I reached for the penalty bottle. "In that case..." We'd all agreed that anyone who backed out would be doused with a bottle of lemonade that Kari had brought, and with just one set of clothes, one would be in a sticky, sorry state for the rest of the trip if one tried to cheat.  
"Okay, okay!" she exclaimed quickly. Taking a deep breath, she clenched her teeth with all the pathos of a prisoner about to get the chop. "KE-" She froze mid-word, and I held up the bottle of lemonade menacingly. "Um...could you repeat it?" she said meekly.  
I obliged.  
"I have to say all that?" she protested, but another flourishing of the bottle silenced her. "Okay, I'm doing it, I'm doing it!" Taking another deep breath as if steeling herself, she squared her shoulders and yelled. "KEN ICHIJOUJI IS THE HOTTEST GUY ON THE PLANET AND I WISH HE WOULD ASK ME OUT! AND THIS ISN'T MY FAULT, KEN, WE'RE PLAYING TRUTH OR DARE AND SORA'S THREATENING ME!"  
"Hey, no telling that it's a dare!" I complained, reaching for the lemonade, but Yolei had snatched it away. She was blushing furiously.  
"I did it, okay? Leave me alone!"  
"But it's in the rules..." I muttered mutinously. Kari sighed.  
"She did it, Sora. Let her have her turn."  
I didn't like it, but it was two-to-one. I nodded.  
"Okay!" Yolei said, clapping her hands. "Kari, truth or dare?"  
"Um...dare," Kari said dubiously.  
"I dare you to duct-tape Davis' tent flap shut tonight while he's asleep!"  
"Hey, cool!" Kari said, not sounding at all unhappy with her dare. "You're on! Sora, truth or dare?"  
"Dare," I said, not wanting another Tai-related fiasco.  
I got one anyway. "I dare you to come with me and do Tai's tent, too!"  
It was actually a pretty good dare. "Sure. Yolei, truth or dare?"  
"Dare, and okay, I'll do Ken's tent," she said. "I got you, didn't I?"  
"You took the words out of my mouth," I admitted. "Okay, so we're all slated for a mass tent-taping tonight. Who brought the duct tape?"  
"I did," Yolei said, rummaging through her bag and holding it up.  
"Cool beans. That was a good idea."  
"Thanks. I did this once when I was at summer camp."  
"We'll sneak out tonight when they're all asleep, then. Nobody's allowed to cheat and wake them up, either."  
"Deal," I said, and we all shook on it.  
"Hey, girls, quit messing with each others' heads in there and come out for dinner! The fire's lit!" That was Matt, calling from outside. I stood up.  
"Well, that's that. Let's go eat!"  
  
*Matt*  
I have seen a lot of funny things in my life.  
Ken's face when he heard Yolei's 'announcement' ranks permanently up in my top ten. I had to catch the hot dog skewer he was holding or he would have dropped it in the fire. Grinning, I calmly added it to the bundle I was already carrying.  
"Thanks for the help, Ken. I'll get out the food now."  
Ken had sat down very suddenly and didn't hear me. I think his knees gave. Chuckling, I headed for the spot where we'd stashed the cooler, back in the stream. I didn't need a flashlight, but I would soon; the sunlight was almost gone, and twilight was setting in. Next to the cooler, the twelve-pack of root beer that the Kamiyas brought was staying cold in a ring of stones that kept the water from rolling the cans away. I opened the cooler and pulled out a package of hot dogs and one of marshmallows, as well as some bottles of condiments.  
Bringing them back to the fire, I noted that Ken had gotten up again, but still had a funny look on his face. I set down the food and yelled for the girls to come and eat.  
"You'd better snap out of it now," I added under my breath to Ken. "Unless you want to look like a moron. It was a dare, for the love of Mike."  
"Right..." Ken said, in a grateful tone. "Here, let me help set that stuff out."  
I was glad for his help, and we got the food out in no time. No time was none too soon, because not only the girls, but everyone else swamped us in ten seconds flat after I called. Soon, we were all sitting around the campfire, stuffing our faces. I wondered idly if Tai had heard what I had, right before Yolei's little soliloquy, but he showed no sign of it. In fact, he managed to put away five hot dogs.  
As the feeding frenzy slowed down and it was no longer necessary to be right up next to the fire, everyone split off into little groups ranged around it. Tai and Sora waved me over to the 'Older Kids' group; Ken, Cody, and Yolei were talking animatedly nearby, with no apparent ill effects left over from Yolei's declaration, and my brother was sharing a blanket with Kari on the other side of the fire while Davis sat nearby, looking dejected. I felt a little sorry for him...but not much. I was too busy mentally cheering for my brother to pay much attention to Davis, anyway.  
The sun had definitely set by then, and Tai, Cody, Yolei and Kari had gotten out flashlights. I lay back on the grass and looked up at the stars. I was happy, warm, and comfortably full of home-roasted junk food, and feeling very content with life in general.  
  
*Cody*  
Ken seemed pretty nervous about something when Yolei come over to sit with us, but he got over that quickly. I wonder what's up with those two? We had a good talk, anyway, and seriously depleted the supply of marshmallows. Then, Tai stood up, with his flashlight under his chin.  
"It's getting pretty dark...and quiet...and spooky...and-"  
"I think what Tai is trying to say," Sora interrupted, "is, 'Who's up for a round of ghost stories?'"  
"Hey, you ruined my scary speech," Tai complained, sitting back down again.  
"Ooh, I think my bunny slippers just ran for cover," Kari said sarcastically. There were giggles all around. Tai pouted, but quickly cheered up again.  
"Oh, hey, I know a good one!"  
Everyone groaned, but Tai insisted. We all sat back, waiting to be bored stiff.  
Instead, we were quickly drawn into a story involving a guy who was caught by a gang and had his skin ripped off. They dumped the body in a sack and left it in the garbage dump outside town, and by the time Tai had a little girl walking home from school near it after dark, hearing whispers in the darkness, we were all hooked. His story telling had improved, and the darkness helped, too. Winding up toward the end, Tai whispered the words of the skinless corpse, slowly climbing from its bloody sack.  
"'Muscle and bone...' She began to run, but it jumped free and followed her, its steps slapping wetly on the ground... 'Bone and muscle...' She could see the lights of the town ahead... 'That is all I am...' She ran faster and faster, but suddenly she felt a sticky hand close around her leg... 'GIVE ME BACK MY SKIN!'"  
At that moment, he reached over and grabbed Sora's foot. She let out a shriek and almost jumped out of *her* skin, and we all burst out laughing.  
"It's not funny!" she complained, breathing hard. "Taichi Kamiya, you almost gave me a heart attack! You are so going to pay for that one!"  
Tai just laughed. We told a few more stories, but eventually we all ran down.  
"I'm tired, you guys," Yolei said finally, yawning. "It's ten thirty, and we had a long day. Let's go to bed."  
Everyone agreed, and we trudged off to our tents. I noticed TK and Kari lagging behind, and dragged Davis quickly into our tent before he could make a nuisance of himself. If I was going to be stuck babysitting him, I was at least going to do a good job of it.  
  
*Kari*  
As we all got up to go to bed, TK touched my hand under the blanket.  
"Wait a while," he whispered. I blinked, but decided to go along with him.  
"Okay...it's been a great night, hasn't it?"  
"It sure has," he agreed. "We started out a little hairy, though."  
"What, you mean all of that stuff with Davis?" I said, surprised. "TK, that didn't mean anything. I'd think you of all people would know that! When I even think about dating him...ugh!" I shuddered, and it wasn't faked. "It would be like dating Tai, or something."  
To my surprise, TK smiled. "That's exactly what I was hoping to hear," he said, taking my hand. "You're probably tired. Let's head in for the night."  
We stood up together, the blanket still around us, and walked to the door of the girls' tent. Everyone else, including Davis, was in their tents; we could see them silhouetted against the walls of their tents by the light of flashlights inside. I doubted that they could see us in the darkness, however, and I got a smug feeling out of that. It was like watching people through a two-way mirror.  
The blanket was mine, and TK reluctantly slipped it from our shoulders and handed it to me.  
"Thanks," he said softly, and I realized that his hands were touching mine as he pressed the bundle of cloth into them. "I had fun tonight."  
"So did I," I said, just as softly. Let me tell you, I was not thinking about two-way mirrors anymore! His face was lit by the light of the campfire, but I didn't think all of the warmness in his eyes was from the firelight. We stood there for a few long minutes, gazing into each other's eyes...  
"Hey, Kari, are you coming or not?" Yolei yelled from inside the tent, breaking the spell. I sighed.  
"Excuse me, TK. I need to go bash the living daylights out of Yolei with my pillow."  
He laughed. "Give her an extra good thrashing for me. I'm not allowed in your tent."  
"I will, don't worry. Good night, TK," I said with a smile. He smiled back.  
"Sweet dreams, Kari." He turned to go, but I called after him.  
"Wait!"  
"Hm?" he said, turning back around.  
I froze... *Okay, Kari girl, it's now or never! Go for it now, or forever hold your peace!* With that little bit of self-encouragement out of the way, my courage came back. I took a few steps forward, paused, then threw caution to the four winds and leaned forward to kiss him.  
I had been half afraid that he would pull away, but he didn't. Thank goodness! In fact, after a second, his arms went around me and he began to kiss back. It was a perfect kiss, our first kiss, and I was so happy I thought that I might explode...  
"Kari! Hurry up!"  
"I'm going to kill that girl," I murmured against TK's mouth. He smiled, and pulled back a little to look into my eyes.  
"It's okay. Just...remind me to finish this later, okay?"  
"Count on it," I said, and kissed him again, quickly, before letting go of him and ducking into the tent. "G'night!"  
"Good night!" he called from outside. I smiled hugely, my heart still doing jumping jacks in my chest, and turned around...  
To see Sora and Yolei sitting on their sleeping bags, grinning knowingly at me.  
"Don't. Say. *Anything,* I said firmly, and got into my sleeping bag. They both giggled.  
"I set my alarm for one-thirty," Sora said, tapping the little headphone she wore.  
"Hey, sweet alarm," I said, glad for the change of subject. "Where'd you get one with headphones?"  
"My mom bought it for me at Radio Shack so that I wouldn't keep waking her up in the mornings with it. Anyway, I'm exhausted. See you at one-thirty!" With that, she rolled over to face the tent wall. Yolei lay down, too, and switched off her flashlight, plunging the tent into shadows. I decided to follow their leads; we wouldn't be getting much sleep that night, and I would need every minute I could get...  
  
*Sora*  
My alarm clock went off loudly in my ears, startling me awake. As I tried to sit up, I panicked for a minute; my arms were pinned at my sides with cloth! Luckily, I remembered where I was and calmed down before I made any loud noises.  
I checked my alarm clock; it was 1:30 am. Yolei was already stirring; I guess my thrashing around woke her up. Climbing out of my bag, I motioned for her to stay silent, and then shook Kari awake, too. After repeating my signal to keep quiet, I began to look for the duct tape. Yolei held it up, along with a pair of scissors. I gave her a thumbs up, and we all slipped silently out of the tent.  
When we reached Davis and Cody's tent, Yolei yanked a strip of tape off of the roll, making us wince at the loud ripping sound. She blushed.  
"Sorry," she whispered, and I nodded and snipped it off of the roll. She handed it to Kari. "Your dare, you do the taping," she hissed, and Kari nodded and began to tape around the edge of the flap. We kept supplying tape, and soon she was done. Giggling quietly, we moved on to TK and Ken's tent. Yolei made short work of that; she was an old hand at this, it seemed. I wondered how many times she'd pulled this particular joke.  
I didn't have much time to wonder, though, because it was my turn next. I grabbed the first piece of duct tape that Kari handed me and started sealing Tai and Matt into their tent, too. My movements made the tent shake a little, but not much.  
Suddenly, I heard a noise inside. "Oh, no..." Kari muttered. I froze, and heard someone roll over in their sleep within the tent.  
"Sora..."  
Kari and Yolei stifled mad giggles, and I went red to the tips of my ears.  
"Does your brother always talk in his sleep?" I hissed at Kari. She shrugged, still trying not to laugh out loud. Blushing furiously, I quickly finished the job, and we went back to our tent. Once there, we all burst into hysterical laughter.  
"I wish that I could see their faces when they wake up and try to get out," Kari gasped.  
"Too bad that they'll be stuck in there, or you could!" Yolei said, sending us all off into giggles again.  
Finally, we all wound down, and went back to sleep. I smiled as I drifted off; this was going to be so rich! Taichi Kamiya would wish he had never tried to scare me with his stupid stories.  
Still, when I did fall asleep, I wasn't thinking about revenge. I was wondering what he had been dreaming about...  
  
*TK*  
A bird's singing woke me the next morning, as I drifted comfortably back to the real world again. I was still glowing inside from the night before, and I'd had a great dream, too. Kari and I were at the beach, kissing... Smiling, I got out of my sleeping bag and grabbed my duffel, planning to go clean up a little at the stream.  
I reached for the tent's zipper, but it didn't budge.  
Frowning, I pulled harder on it. Nothing. I jiggled it, and pulled again. Still nothing. I leaned over and peered out the few inches of unzipped zipper at the bottom.  
Something gray and sticky blocked my view. I blinked, confused, then suddenly realized what was going on.  
"Duct tape!"  
Ken sat up, blinking and rubbing his eyes.  
"What are you talking about?" he slurred, still half asleep.  
"I'll tell you what-somebody duct taped us into our tent!"  
He came awake real quick after that. "What?!" Shooting out of bed, he took the step and a half that it took to cross our tiny tent and sat down next to me. "Let me see that!"  
He sat up again a second later, looking bemused. "Who do you think..."  
"Who else?"  
"Davis?" he said, thinking. "Huh...I'll bet you're right. When I catch him..."  
"Hey!" came an angry yell from one tent over. "What's with the tape?! TQ, I'm going to kill you!"  
"Okay, scratch that idea," I muttered.  
"Maybe Tai?" Ken said, but loud complaints from our neighbors on the other side did away with that lead, too.  
"If we're all taped into our tents..." I said, suddenly realizing what must have happened.  
"...then that only leaves the girls!" Ken said, catching on. "I bet this is some messed-up dare left over from their Truth or Dare game!"  
Hysterical female laughter from outside proved our point a minute later.  
"Having fun, Tai?" I heard Sora say.  
"You...you...you cheater!" Tai yelled, sounding furious.  
"Next time, don't try to scare me! I told you you'd pay for...ack!"  
A loud ripping noise heralded (I was willing to hazard a guess) Tai's escape from the tent. Sora's shrieks confirmed that guess.  
"Help! Ack! You put that down right now!"  
"I'll give you duct tape! Duct tape this!"  
Ken and I both scooted over to the window of the tent and unzipped it to see Tai chasing Sora around the girls' tent with a pillow as she screamed with either fear or laughter. I had a feeling it was laughter. Kari and Yolei were doubled over in hysterics.  
"Hey, Kari," I called, trying to get her attention. She looked up. "Great joke. Really creative. Now if you're through having a fit, would you mind letting us out of here?"  
"Sure." She took a step toward the tent, but Yolei grabbed her arm.  
"Hold on! I did it, I'm the one who decides when it gets undone!"  
"You did that?" Ken said, sounding shocked. Yolei went red.  
"It was a dare..." she mumbled.  
"Oh, like that other...thing...was a dare, too?" Ken said, sounding a little mad. Yolei went even redder.  
"Just let us out, okay?" I said, trying to avert impending disaster. Kari shrugged and headed over to the flap. After a few ripping sounds, she poked her head into the tent.  
"Okay, you can come out now, you guys!"  
She ducked out again, and I followed her. Ken came after me a minute later, looking none too happy.  
"That was not funny, Yolei," he said. She rolled her eyes.  
"Quit being a baby. It was too funny."  
"*I'm* a baby?" Ken said incredulously. Yolei looked fit to kill, when suddenly Kari grinned.  
"Hey, Yolei, Truth or Dare?"  
"I thought we quit playing that dumb game!" Yolei snapped.  
"We never officially ended it," Kari said defensively. "Well?"  
"Dare," Yolei said guardedly. Kari's face lit up with triumph, and she leaned over and whispered in Yolei's ear. Yolei turned a funny shade of red. "No way, no how, Kari Kamiya!"  
"Lemonade..." Kari said in a singsong voice. Yolei stared at her, as if to say, 'have you no soul?!' Kari just shrugged. "C'mon, I'm waiting..."  
Glaring at her, Yolei took a step toward Ken, who still looked angry, but was now also looking a little scared.  
"You're not going to duct tape my mouth shut or anything, are you?" he said, nervously. Yolei's answer was to cross her fingers, as if for luck...  
And kiss him.  
My jaw must have hit the ground. I think Ken's would have, too, if it could have. Instead, he made a funny noise, like 'mphm!' Yolei pulled back, blushing.  
"Um..."  
"Ah..."  
They looked awkwardly at each other for a few minutes, not sure what to do now...  
"Oh, the heck with it," she said suddenly, and kissed him again. To my surprise, after a stunned moment, he kissed her back!  
"I knew it!" Kari whispered jubilantly, grinning from ear to ear.  
"What? It was a dare! How did you know she'd...?"  
"Yolei can only be blackmailed so far. She wouldn't have gone through with it unless she secretly wanted to." Kari's logic, as usual, was impeccable, and Matt, coming out of the tent, laughed.  
"She's got you there, little bro. I think we have ourselves a diplomat."  
Kari smiled at me.  
"Hey, speaking of kissing, I think you owe me one..."  
I wasn't about to complain...  
  
*Davis*  
I scowled out the tent window at Tai, who was still chasing Sora. How dare he enjoy himself while I was stuck in here? He was, too-he was laughing as he ran! And TK and Kari were *kissing*! Not fair! Cody was sitting in the corner of the tent, glaring at me. This day just kept getting worse...  
"Help! Will somebody get me out of here? Please...?"  
  
*FINIS*  



End file.
